The new variant, nicknamed Pirola, has drawn the World Health Organisation's attention.
has countries on alert as scientists scramble to understand how far it has spread and how well our immunity will defend against it.
"This makes it an evolutionary jump comparable in size to that which originally gave rise to Omicron," BloomThe World Health Organisation has designated BA.2.86 a "variant under monitoring" on. A variant under monitoring that causes more severe disease or evades existing vaccines or treatments can be upgraded to WHO's list of variants of interest or variants of concern. XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16 and EG.5 are listed as variants of interest. WHO has not designated any variants of concern.
The variant was spotted by scientists in Israel on Sunday. Since then, Denmark has reported three sequences. Two more sequences were reported in the US and in the United Kingdom, respectively."It is unusual for corona to change so significantly and develop 30 new mutations. The last time we saw such a big change was when Omicron appeared," said Morten Rasmussen, a senior researcher at the Statens Serum Institut, in a news statement on the variant.
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